Post by Trish
I love to see markets like this popping up around the country. I had the great pleasure of being a part of my local Chester (Ct) Sunday Market last growing season. I shared a space with Laura Williams of Whosiepie, and we had a blast every Sunday. I think it really helps to paint a picture in attendees minds that buying locally grown or made is a mindset and extends to all aspects of life. If you ask me, there is nothing better than knowing who is providing you with the necessities in life. Wouldn’t you rather buy a piece of clothing from two girls smiling and laughing than from a steal rack with no attendant in site? The item you buy from the two girls with always have a smile attached to it. Every time you pull the item from you closet or drawer you will remember the laughter outside under the tent at the market, with a group of hula hooping fans in the yoga booth in the next tent over.
It gets very addicting to shop this way too. The experiences are so rich, full of sights and smells that will forever be burned in your memory. It makes the action of switching from quantity in life to quality of life much easier. The experiences become the quantity we crave to keep our quality of life the best that it can possible be.
A paragraph from The Brooklyn Rail about The Makers Market really sums it up:
“Appropriately, the slogan of the Market’s next flyer, with a nod toward the deification of the creative individual, exhorts the shopper to “Meet your Maker.” In fact, meeting the person who has made the clothes, food, pottery, accessories, and fine art that can be purchased here at the Old American Can Factory is a refreshing experience. With an emphasis on locally sourced materials as well as labor, the curators of the market screen the vendors by process as much as product. The Market restores the connection between an individual’s labor and its cultural context by allowing the customer to buy something directly from the hands that made them and in many instances on the site of their manufacture. It’s an antidote to the homogeneity of big box stores and precious boutiques.” – Cora Fisher, The Brooklyn Rail
I hope if you are in Brooklyn you can find your way to The Makers Market sometime. I know I will be taking a road trip to check it out. One of our darling designers Angel Rox is selling her clothing there. It is always fun to take a little trip to meet in person the designers who have come together to help make up Smashing Darling.
The Markets at The (OA) Can Factory
232 Third Street at Third Avenue
Gowanus Brooklyn 11215
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Im with you! I am trying to change my habits (slowly but surely) to match this frame of mind. It is much better to meet the people who create the item you are buying, than to just pick a mass produced item off a shelf.
It’s very addictive to shop this way!
I think markets like this are the future. They reinforce locally grown and locally made. Slow food. Slow fashion. Just like so many of the talented artists on Smashing Darling who create fashion the old fashioned way, by hand.